Tan Tleyawi
$1,200.00
BRENDA WAINMAIN GOULET AWARD OF DISTINCTION WINNER
Artist: Nancy Oakley
Medium: Ceramic with Mixed Media
Artist Statement:
“Tan Tleyawi” it’s about a sense of belonging to place. each window has something which connects me to the land that I lived and which has shaped me into who I am. sweet grass harvested with family from Nova Scotia, cobblestones representing the Causeway coming into Cape Breton, Black ash splints , porcupine quills and birchbark locally harvested in Nova Scotia. Lnu (mikmaq) hieroglyphic beaded and spruce boughs to represent wekistoniq (Eskasoni) which means where the green boughs grow and a small pot made with Castle bay rez mud, a local wild clay I use. There is a carving of my chin tattoo which represents me and my mother and our similar journeys Eskasoni, NS – Mashpee, MA and Mashpee -back to Eskasoni. symbols for waves because both my peoples have always lived by the water. Wampum chips to represent Mashpee, MA and a window with drum beats because the drum was always present at every event growing up. lastly mica chips that i have carried with me for the last 30+ years from when I lived in Santa Fe, learning my craft. This piece is a self portrait through the landscapes that have shaped me.
Artist Biography:
Nancy E. Oakley is a Mi’kmaw and Mashpee Wampanoag artist ,living and working on the Eskasoni First Nation reserve in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.. She is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied Photography and pottery. After graduating She then moved to Nova Scotia and studied for a year at Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, taking courses in Photography, ceramics, weaving and jewelry making, before leaving to start her family. She is now a mother of 6 and grandmother of 8.
Nancy’s artistic journey embodies the richness of indigenous heritage and a deep connection to the land. Through hand shaped softly curved pottery vessels, Nancy creates culturally significant pieces that imbue her traditional knowledge and honours her role as a woman, mother and grandmother. In an intrinsic collaboration with Mother Earth, Oakley’s expression of knowledge, feelings and experiences can be seen in the processes of her pieces.
